CHAPTER EIGHT
H
unter’s slate gray stare held me hostage. “Willa, are you keeping stuff from us too?”
I exploded into motion, unable to contain my pent-up anxiousness. My paced steps created a noisy trail back and forth through the crunchy leaves.
Kolton stepped into my path on the third pass, and I was no closer to thinking of an answer for them. He stopped me. “Did that guy find you?” Yes. “Did he threaten you?” Yes, yes. His eyes rounded. He ghosted a thumb down my cheek.
It was the side that’d taken the brunt of the beating, making me think they’d visited or talked to my dad when I’d been lost in a coma. I flinched at first but calmed quickly.
Kolton studied my reactions. “Wait, did he get into your room? Did he fucking do this?”
In a way… Also, not really. The mayor couldn’t be blamed for the chief’s actions any more than I was responsible for Ben’s death.
I answered the last question and pretended they wouldn’t assume I meant no to both. “No, he didn’t do this.”
Kolton tipped his head in thought. “But someone fucking did. You’re jumpier than you used to be.”
“Am I? It could be because my brain got scrambled. I can barely write anymore. I have the penmanship of a” —screw Jules— “third grader in a moving vehicle on a gravel road. How messed up is that?” A self-deprecating laugh escaped as I crossed my arms, a subconscious shield against the world.
Kolton glared, placing a hand on my arm, and I didn’t help my case when, of course, I winced at the touch. “Hey, don’t fucking talk about yourself like that. That’s fucked up. Life is full of fuckers who’ll happily bash someone if given a chance. Don’t add yourself in the mix.”
“You know something, don’t you?” Hunter demanded while I digested Kolton’s words, his jaw jutted. “I’m right. You know who the stalker is.”
Kolton buzzed with energy. “You do? Tell us, Willa. Who killed Ben? We need to get him justice!”
I broke free and put some space between us to keep them in my line of sight. Ralph’s silence had been bothering me. “Look, even if I suspected something, saying anything would only get me an express ticket back to the loony bin.” I’d never return, not without a fight.
I’d be better off digging my own grave.
Hunter crossed his arms. “Then tell us. We can’t protect you if we don’t—”
“You can’t! That’s just it. Suppose I told you, and you believed me, there’s nothing you can do. It’d only land you in the same boat as me.” Or worse. Would they be able to sit back and do nothing if they knew who’d murdered their friend? “You’re better off not knowing. It’s safer.”
“Yeah? How’d that work out for Ben?” Kolton quipped, immediately apologizing. “Fuck, Willa. I’m sorry. You didn’t fucking—I—” My chest split, despite his quick words of reassurance, because yeah, it was true and not something I’d thought too long about.
At least, I hadn’t thought about it consciously anyway. It was another reason to push them away as friends though. “No, it’s true. You have every right to say it.”
Kolton panicked. I must have sounded or moved in some way that projected my intention to close myself off. “No—”
I held up a staying hand. “That’s why it’d be better if you guys forget about me.”
“Shit.” Kolton blinked, thrown by my lack of emotion. Even to my own ears, my voice sounded dead, loaded with unwavering resignation at the impossible situation. “Just who the fuck do you think is after you?”
I said nothing in response.
“You had no clue who he was before,” Hunter continued, talking slowly as if chewing something over. “Kolton’s right, isn’t he? That guy found you and got close enough to hurt you.” He paused before deciding to voice whatever thought he’d just had. “He family?”
“What?” I blinked. “No!”
“Yeah, that sounded like the truth. Okay, so he isn’t family, but…” Kolton’s eyes rounded. “Fuck, you know he isn’t family, so you do know!”
“Of course she knows!” Hunter growled. “Why’d you say that shit if you didn’t think it?”
“I don’t know! I fucking talk out my ass all the time. Just ask Coach. I’m always getting into deep shit for it.”
Or it could be that Kolton was more perceptive than he realized.
Hunter shook his head in annoyance, steering the conversation back on track.
“You know who it is, Willa, and they got to you at the hospital. They damn near killed you. He had no way of knowing you wouldn’t die, because the way your dad tells it, you did die and more than once, so either he’s controlled by rage, or he planned to attack you and wouldn’t need to worry about you talking. Which is it?”
They were tossing aside the notion of the injury being an “accident.” Unfortunately, dissuading them of the idea now would be next to impossible, even if it was false.
The cops would be livid if they discovered all the lengths they went through to cover for their boss were at risk of unravelling.
If the FVPD had taken the stalking report seriously, then they might have remembered that, A, I had a stalker, and B, Hunter had been there, holding my hand and also reporting what he’d seen.
I rubbed some warmth in my arms. “What’s this? The Watson and Holmes show?”
Hunter’s jaw worked. “Still evading? Let’s say he’s controlled by rage.
Did he intend to kill you or just shake you up?
And why? How did he get into your room if he wasn’t family?
Did he lie? Did the personnel buy it? It’s a secured place.
They have sign-out sheets for their sign-out sheets.
Your parents would have had to create a list of approved visitors on your intake. Unless… he’s an employee there?”
“Stop, stop, please stop. Okay? You’re so far off. He isn’t the one who put me into a coma…” My voice trailed off into a whisper.
“Ha! So you admit someone did that to you!” Kolton shoved his hands into his pockets, wincing. “Fuck, but that’s worse! Two people are trying to kill you?”
My eyes raced around the clearing, searching for an answer, mirroring my scrambling thoughts.
That was answer enough. They swore, even Ralph who’d been mostly silent.
“Who’s the other one?” Hunter demanded.
I hugged myself, looking down.
“Him too?” Now, Kolton paced, carefully avoiding a suspicious looking bush.
“Two people you won’t tell us about, and you’ve seen them both.
Don’t deny it, Wordsmith. They got close to you.
Otherwise, how would you know he wasn’t him?
He wasn’t him. Him wasn’t him? No, that sounds fucking weird.
This entire situation is giving me a head spin. I’m tagging out. Hunter? Ralph?”
Hunter kept me pinned beneath his penetrating gaze. “You’re right.”
Kolton held his hand up to his ear. “I’m sorry, what? Repeat that while I record it.”
Hunter flipped him off before turning to me. “There has to be two people, and you know enough about them to say which did what, so…”
“I can’t,” I whispered, my voice absolutely broken. My spine and shoulders slumped under the weight of secrecy and danger. It was insanity. How had my life turned into this?
Here was the moment they’d get angry, fed up with my silence, and walk away.
I braced myself and waited.
When nothing happened, I chanced a peek at them.
Something—my posture, the tremulous quality of my words, the despair in my broken gaze—whatever it was, something had them backing off.
Hunter growled in frustration. “Fine. Keep your secrets for now, but don’t think we’ll abandon you because you’re feeling guilty and sorry for yourself. That’s not what friends do. Now, come on. Let’s head back.”
Kolton turned. “The fuck? Why?”
“I have to be at work in thirty minutes, and she isn’t staying out here in the woods by herself with a psychotic stalker on the loose.”
“Hey! We aren’t chopped liver, you fucker.”
“Oh, you’re welcome to stay and get yourself killed, but you’re dragging her down with you.”
“What the fuck favoritism is this?”
“Yeah, you’re a grown man, arguably. You can make your own dumb decisions.”
Their banter healed a microscopic tear in the gaping rift of my soul, and my heart soared with a hopeful flutter.
That was it?
They still wanted to be my friends?
Then, my blossoming hope died. If they insisted on sticking around, how much longer would it be before they were in danger as well?
Then again, maybe it’d be fine. I met all four boys at the same time. The killer chose to go after Ben, so maybe if I didn’t date anyone, all would be well?
Hah, dating? That landed so low on my list of priorities, it didn’t even register as a blip on my radar.
To be honest, in a lot of ways, it felt like Ben was it for me.
“Hey, you guys go ahead.” Ralph edged into my path. “I need to discuss something with Willa.”
Kolton did a one-eighty, literally and figuratively digging his heels in. “What? No, fuck that! No secrets. Whatever you have to say, we should hear it too.”
“Sorry, but this is private.”
“Private?” Kolton spluttered. “What the fuck? Have we not overanalyzed together until we were blue in the face?”
“Their arrest,” Hunter answered, since he’d also done a double take at Ralph’s request for privacy. “You’ve always been cagey when we asked what you were doing to get scooped up by the cops.”
Kolton snapped his fingers. “That’s right. All you said was that they picked you up for trespassing fifteen minutes away.”
A trio of inquisitive expressions, ranging from suspicious to curious, landed on us with full force as they looked to the source for answers. “Uh…”
The sound of my ringtone trilled from my pocket. I tried not to look too eager and relieved as I fumbled my phone free and answered. “Hello?”
“Willa?” Dad began. “You guys heading back soon? Dinner’s done.”
I jumped at the excuse. “Yep, ah, yes, we’ll head back now.”
“I made plenty. Are any of them staying for dinner?”
And give them a chance to change their minds and grill me later? “Oh, probably not.” Hopefully, they could only hear my side of the conversation.
“Ah, right.”